North Dakota has a public bank–a bank that has been owned and operated by the people of North Dakota since 1919. Because of the Bank of North Dakota, the state weathered the crisis of 2008 far better than most. North Dakota has not had a single local bank failure in more than 20 years. This documentary, produced by Prairie Public Broadcasting, presents the bank’s history, its current operation, and how it benefits the state.

Would replacing our commodity-based economic model with one that prioritizes human-interest qualify to be called “Sacred Economics?” That’s the name of a book by Ellen’s guest this week, Charles Eisenstein, a highly popular radical re-thinker of the nature of human economy. Eisenstein observes some of the inherent flaws in our economic thinking and reminds us that we are the ones in a position to create new priorities. And co-host Walt McRee speaks with Santa Fe public banking leader Nichoe Lichen of Banking on New Mexico, which this past week saw release of a very positive city feasibility study that supports creating a new city-owned public bank.

Listen to Craig Barnes interview two experts on public banking, Gwen Hallsmith, Executive Director of the Public Banking Institute, and Mike Krauss, a director of the Public Banking Institute and chairman of the Pennsylvania Project–an organization dedicated to the formation of Public Banks at the state and municipal level in Pennsylvania. They recently visited Santa Fe on behalf of We are People Here! to meet and discuss, with Mayor Gonzales, City Councilors, and other civic leaders of Santa Fe, the benefits and the formation of a Public Bank for the City of Santa Fe.